Various belts, cables, chains and other "line type" devices are used to apply tension loads on enumerous objects. For instance, a carriage may be moved back and forth along a track by a belt connected to the carriage, with the belt being driven by an electric or hydraulic motor. In such installations, it is desirable that the belt be disengageable from the carriage in emergency situations, for instance, if the carriage becomes jammed or the drive motor does not operate properly. Disengagement of the belt from the carriage can avoid significant damage to the carriage structure and/or to the motor used to drive the belt.
A prior art system for connecting the belt to the carriage includes a pin mounted on the carriage and a connector fastened to the end of the drive belt. The connector includes a pair of jaws that have a tip portion that form an exit gap having a width somewhat smaller than the width of the pin. Inboard of the exit gap is an enlarged slot portion of a width significantly larger than the width of the pin. The pin is engaged in the wider slot portion and then tension is placed on the belt so that the pin nominally seats at the innersection of the wider slot portion and the narrower exit gap. When the load on the belt exceeds a threshold level, the jaws separately sufficiently to permit the pin to pass through the exit gap to disengage the jaws. A drawback of this connection system is that when any significant tension load is placed on the belt, the resilient jaws separate somewhat, but not to the extent to allow the pin to disengage from the jaws. As a result, typically constant movement occurs between the jaws and the exterior of the pin whereby the friction forces acting therebetween cause gauling or other detrimental wear between the jaws and the pin leading eventually to failure of the connection system. This and other drawbacks of prior art connection systems are addressed by the present invention.